EDWARD V A.D. 1483 - 1485

April 9th to June 26th 1483

Born 1471.- Began to reign,1483. - Reigned 2 months. Murdered 1483.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS
Richard, duke of Gloucester, Lord Protector. Lord Hastings beheaded on Tower - hill. The young king and his brother sent to the Tower. Richard usurps the throne.

Edward V., King of England, the eldest son of Edward IV., was in his thirteenth year when he succeeded his father in 1483. His uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, soon made himself king as Richard III., and caused the young king and his brother to he sent to the Tower, where, it is said, he had them smothered by ruffians.

OFFICIALS

Archbishop. - Thomas Bourchier
Chancellor - John Russell, Bishop of Lincoln. Richard , Duke of Gloucester, Protector of the kingdom, May 14th, 1483.

HISTORY Of ENGLAND - By - H. W. DULCKEN P.H.D.

Published By - Ward Lock & Co Limited - 1903

THE boy Prince of Wales, who, by his father's death, had become King of England, was at Ludlow Castle, in the care of Earl Rivers, the brother of Queen Elizabeth Woodville. The great nobles were divided into two parties - the faction of the queen, headed by the earl Rivers, the Marquis Dorset, Lord Richard Grey, and Lord Lyle, - and the followers of the Yorkist House, the Stanleys, Howards, and Hastings, who looked on the Nobles. Duke of Gloucester as their head. Next to Richard of Gloucester himself, the most powerful adherents of this faction were the Lord Chamberlain, Hastings, and Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. Gloucester at once proceeded southward, and at York took the oath of fealty to the new king. Hastings was at court in London, and soon showed a spirit of antagonism to the queen, and threatened to retire from court, if the young monarch appeared surrounded with guards. It seems that at this time he was acting in concert with the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham.

Meanwhile, Earl Rivers had set out from Ludlow Castle with the young king, whom he purposed carrying to London. When he reached Stony Stratford with his charge, he found that the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham were at Northampton, only a few miles off. The next day the two dukes advanced to Stony Stratford ; but so soon as Gloucester had the young king in his hands, Rivers and Grey were carried off under arrest to Pontefract Castle, and the dukes proceeded with the young Edward towards London.

The queen took Sanctuary at Westminster, with Richard Duke of York, her second son, and her five daughters. In London the arrival of the two dukes and their royal charge was impatiently awaited. The young king was sen, ostensibly for the safety of his person, to the Tower of London, there to await his coronation. Gloucester was named Protector of the Realm. On the morning of the 13th of June a council was held in the Tower of London, to which various lords, including Hastings and Stanley, were summoned. At nine o'clock the Protector appeared, apparently in the most gracious mood. Presently he left the council hall for a short time; he returned, in a mood sorely changed. Looking sternly around, he asked what should be done to those who by witchcraft and sorcery had compassed the death of him, the Protector of the realm, and denounced the queen and her associates. Hastings replied that if they had done this, they deserved signal punishment. The Protector appeared to be roused to fury by Lord Hastings denounced him as a traitor, and declared he would prove his assertion on the Chamberlain's body. A number of armed men rushed in and filled the council chamber. The unfortunate nobleman was hurried away to the Tower Green, where his head was struck off on a log of timber that happened to be lying on the ground. On the same day the captives at Pomfret - Rivers, Vaughan, Grey, and Hawse - were put to death by Ratcliffe, a partisan of Gloucester.

For Gloucester's designs it was necessary to get the king's younger brother the little Duke of York, into his power. The Archbishop of Canterbury undertook the task. With many misgivings the unfortunate queen delivered the little Duke of York into the care of the prelate. The Protector sent him to join the king in the Tower.

Gloucester proceeded to throw doubt upon the right of succession of the two princes in the Tower, declaring that Edward IV. had been contracted to another lady at the time he married Elizabeth Woodville. The vices of the late king were also paraded before the people, to undermine the influence of his wife and children ; and Dr. Shaw, the brother of the lord mayor preaching to a great crowd at Paul's Cross, boldly asserted that Edward IV. himself was not really a son of Richard Duke of York. A day or two later, on the 24th of June, Buckingham addressed the citizens at the Guildhall, going over the substance of Shaw's arguments. Some of the poorer citizens, incited by certain followers of the duke, were induced to shout, " Long live King Richard I " and on the following day a deputation, headed by Buckingham, waited on the Protector at Baynard's Castle, on the Thames, with a formal petition that he would assume the crown. Richard yielded to solicitation the nominal reign of Edward V. closed, and the reign of Richard III began.